Used wine bottles are frequently collected for recycling. However, removal of the glued-on labels is typically a labour intensive manual process that makes it difficult to re-use such bottles. It is generally not considered cost-effective to prepare such bottles for re-use by removing the labels. Instead, used containers are usually recycled by crushing, thereby resulting in a loss of economic value as well as increased energy consumption and environmental harm caused by the processes and steps involved in re-forming the crushed glass into new bottles.
Although automated systems for removing bottle labels have been proposed, the cost and difficulty of label removal from wine bottles is exacerbated by the wide variety of bottle shapes, as well as the wide variety in type, number, positioning and composition of the labels and the multiple types of adhesive used. Various mechanical or solution-based systems and devices have been proposed for this purpose, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,679,210 and 3,946,750, and published U.S. patent application no. 2009/0255603A1.
Many vineyards, wine producers and other beverage bottling operations, in particular small-scale operations, would benefit from a relatively simple and compact device or system for removing labels from used wine bottles and other containers, in order to permit their re-use.